[MLB-WIRELESS] Launching The Automagic Firmware Builder

[Dan Flett]

Hi all,

Here's a project I've been working on for the last couple of months:

http://flett.zapto.org/firmware

I call it the Melbourne Wireless Automagic Firmware Builder.

It is based on the Friefunk Firmware Kit - it is a web-based front-end for a
firmware building shell script.  It is able to set the "factory defaults" of
a firmware image on a node-by-node basis.  This means that it can take the
information from your node from the map database (LocFinder) and build it as
the firmware defaults.

I'm currently using a very slightly modified version of the
Freifunk-Firmware, but the Automagic Firmware Builder is a delivery
mechanism that can build just about any sort of Firmware - it simply
modifies the already-compiled filesystem before the last step of turning it
into a TRX firmware image happens.

I hope to add the MWHotspot package to the firmware next, and then make the
admin web-interface look a bit more like the Melbourne Wireless look and
feel.  I'd like any modifications to the Freifunk (or other) mainline
firmware to be built as packages - this makes it easier to stay up-to-date
with the latest version of the mainline - I don't to create a "Melbourne
Wireless Firmware" as a full-blown fork of another firmware - I want our
firmware to stay up-to-date with Freifunk or OpenWRT or whatever we end up
using.

This firmware uses OLSR for routing, and is designed for single-radio adhoc
routing only.  I figured that anyone who wants to do anything more
complicated is probably knowledgeable enough to set up OpenWRT on their own.
But the Automagic Builder facilitates the mass-production of simple,
user-friendly, preconfigured nodes which is what I believe Melbourne
Wireless needs.

You need have a registered node with an IP Block allocation to use the
Builder.  I have tested the resulting firmware images on a WL-500g, a WRT54G
v3.1 and a WL-HDD.

I'm very interested to get feedback - please email me with any criticisms or
suggestions!

Cheers,

Dan